Every lifetime
by BritishAlien
Summary: The Doctor has just regenerated and the TARDIS drags him to a familiar door. One he must always visit. Thank you for reading. x


The chips had been good. Proper chip shop chips. He could think of worse for his first meal in his new mouth. Fish fingers and custard sprang to mind. He'd always wondered what flash of inspiration had drawn him to consume that bowl of flakey goo. It hadn't tasted too bad at the time but he was glad he'd moved on to something more refined. The Doctor and Clara had walked back to the TARDIS full of chips. The experience had begun to close the gap between them. A normal chat had been exactly what they needed. It had been awkward at first, sat sternly across a table from one another while they both devoured chips in silence, but conversation had started to flow and turned towards their next adventure. Clara had asked the Doctor what he wanted to do. They had crash landed in Victorian times; falling into the world of the Paternoster gang without warning and so the idea that there was a choice of destination had enlivened excitement in the Doctor's new hearts.

The Doctor had announced in a flurry of exaggerated hand gestures that he wanted to visit the origins of the Azured Arms; a fairy tale he had known back on Gallifrey. When the universe first started to shine, there had been thirteen figures that had guided the stars and coaxed them out of darkness. Each figure controlled their own desired type of world and harboured them like protective parents. There had been one figure, Arethusa, a beautiful she-spirit who had taken charge of all the water planets. Water allowed the planets to bear life and wherever there was life, there was hope that something beautiful could arise into the universe. But there had been one planet in particular which caught her eye. It shimmered and gleamed so brightly. She prized it highly as it span across space and lit up every other world in its wake. The planet however, like all beautiful things was doomed, headed towards the stomach of a black hole. Its course was set and its fate sealed. This was until Zeus, King of her kind, gave Arethusa a choice. She was to let it drift out into space, to be lost forever, or she was to become its protector and let all the other worlds fend for themselves. After much strife, Arethusa made her decision. She wrapped her arms around the world; taking care of it for all of time. Her arms, made from a trillion stars, wove their way around the planet, encircling it with luminous beauty. It was said, in the texts of Old High Gallifrey, to be one of the most peaceful and envied parts of the universe. The Doctor felt that tranquil was exactly what he needed so soon after such a hectic regeneration.

The Doctor had set the co-ordinates for the heart of the Ortygian system where the best views of the Azured Arms could be glimpsed. Clara watched as the new Doctor came to grips with his oldest companion once more and gloried in the ease that seemed to overcome every subtle movement the Time Lord made. The TARDIS flew through the sky, rocking from side to side and flinging its passengers to and fro across the main console room. The central gallopiter came to a resounding thunk and the Doctor ran along the gangplank and flung the door wide open.

'Oh.' The Doctor called from the door, a little disappointed.

'What is it, Doctor?' Clara called from the console, wondering why, in mid-flight, the Doctor had come to a sudden halt.

'The old girl got it wrong.' The Doctor said storming back up the gangplank. He started flicking switches and hitting buttons but the TARDIS refused to budge. 'Come on, dear. You know I didn't mean the old girl thing. It's not like I've done anything else to annoy you yet. Come on, sweetheart. Let me have this one.' The Doctor addressed the TARDIS as he navigated his way around the console.

'Why won't she let you go where you need to go?' Clara asked.

'Because the guidance systems are…' The Doctor paused, clinging onto Clara's words and running them through his memory. 'Need to go…' The Doctor started walking back to the door. A resounding change had come over him. A memory had popped back into his head and was forcing him forward.

'Doctor? Doctor, what is it?' Clara said as she watched the Time Lord disappear out of the TARDIS. 'Look what you've made him do.' Clara cursed the TARDIS before running to catch up with him. As Clara left the confines of the blue box, she found herself stood on an ordinary street. Trees overhanging the fences that shut in private gardens, cars parked on the roadside. The Doctor had walked a few paces further on and was staring at this big old house. Clara ran up to him and stood by his side. A sign stood on the street corner.

'Bannerman road? Who lives here?'

'It's a journey I should always make…' The Doctor stared up at the big imposing house. Inside, a woman would be sitting writing away and getting on with her life. He felt like his visit might be intruding but it hardly ever felt right that he could pass through a life without seeing her nowadays. What if she didn't want to see him? What if going to see her ultimately caused more harm than good? She'd already said that he'd been a tough act to follow when she was younger. He didn't know whether his turning up on her door would make any difference now. Maybe she was expecting him. However she reacted, it couldn't be that bad, could it?

With a deep breath, he pushed aside all of his fears and strode up the drive and stood on the doorstep. He knocked on the door, a little nervous. Clara could see the Doctor almost trembling as he waited for the door to open. She grabbed hold of his hand as they heard footsteps tumbling down the stairs. He squeezed her hand tight, always staring straight ahead. He let go as the door swung open and there stood a woman. Her long brown hair draped over her shoulders. Her dark waistcoat sat perfectly over a quiet pink shirt. Her smile beamed and her eyes shone.

'Hello. Can I help you?' She asked, a little breathless.

'Sarah Jane.' The Doctor almost whispered in his cool Scottish accent. It had been so long since he'd seen her. She stole his breath away.

'That's me. How can I help you?' Her smile seemed to widen as the barriers began to break between the two of them.

'I'm a very old friend from too long ago.' The Doctor reached for her hand and pulled it up to his face before kissing it. Clara watched as Sarah's eyes lit up. A light inside realised who the man was and her whole demeanour changed. Clara could have sworn she saw a tear forming in the woman's eye, but it was soon dismissed when the whole picture began to form. She knew.

'Come in.' Sarah Jane stepped aside and welcomed them into her home. The Doctor stepped past the threshold first. Scanning the hallway with his new eyes. Taking in every detail. Clara looked at Sarah Jane who held the door open and smiled sweetly before following the Doctor.

'You have a lovely home.' Clara said, trying to drag herself into the situation. She didn't want to intrude their meeting but she had no other choice. She went where the Doctor went and he hadn't told her to stay behind. She had heard of Sarah Jane, of course, but had no real idea about who she was. Now she got to meet the woman, she could see why the Doctor, any of him, would like her. Even in a brief encounter, you could see this woman had starlight in her soul long before she met the bumbling Time Lord.

'Thank you, dear. It's not a lot, but it is cosy. Please go in to the front room. Can I offer you both a cup of tea?' Sarah said, shutting the front door behind them.

'One each, please. If you don't mind.' The Doctor said, peering into the living room and heading for one of the sofas.

'Funny. You're a funny one.' Sarah Jane called as she made her way to the kitchen. Clara heard the kettle begin to boil as she entered the front room. Two sofas sat opposite one another with a small armchair at the head of the two. The Doctor plumped for one of the sofas, his back to the window that opened out on to the street, whilst Clara chose the other. Sarah Jane entered the room and, looking at the distance between the two, decided that the armchair would be best. Sarah Jane's view concentrated on the Doctor as she just sat and smiled. The Doctor decided he'd let the silence settle and allow Sarah Jane to take in all she could about the new him.

'How long has it been for you?' The Doctor finally asked before the silence lapsed into too awkward a state.

'Oh…about four years. 2010. You, me, Jo Grant, Claw Shansheeth. Thought you were properly dead. Quite a party.' Sarah replied. Her eyes glistening as she remembered those heady days. All those years ago.

'Ah yes. I remember it fondly. Not the proper death bit. The other bit.'

'And you?' She asked solemnly.

'A few centuries. As I said, too long.' The Doctor said, leaning forward clasping his hands together to rest in his lap.

'You're getting forgetful in your old age.'

'He was forgetful when he was younger too.' Clara joked.

'And what's your name seeing as the Doctor has not introduced us?' Sarah said, turning to Clara, finally bringing her into conversation.

'Clara. Clara Oswald.' She smiled.

'Very nice to meet you, Clara. Don't mind him. I suppose he's just losing it a bit in old age. Back in my day…'

'Right, while you two witter on about my bad habits, I'm going to pop to the bathroom.' The Doctor could feel that the two of them were about to start a good old gossiping session. It had been the same when Sarah Jane met Rose. He supposed it was what his companions did. Keep score.

'Certainly. You know where it is.' The Doctor smiled and left the room. Clara and Sarah Jane sat in silence for a few seconds as they listened to the Doctor climb the stairs. Clara looked round the room admiring some of the decorations that adorned the walls. It looked like a normal family home. Photographs of stranger's faces, book cases fit to bursting. The kettle clicked off and Sarah Jane snapped round to follow the noise.

'Come give me a hand with the tea, dear.' Sarah Jane got up swiftly and left the room. Clara pushed herself up from the sofa and followed her through to the kitchen. Sarah had already started making the tea. Bringing three mugs out from a cupboard and soaking tea bags in the boiled water. The smell began to fill the kitchen. 'How long has it been?' Clara was somewhat taken back by the question and just stared at the back of Sarah Jane's head as she attended to the tea.

'Since what?' Clara enquired innocently.

'Since he changed?' Sarah said, turning and giving Clara that knowing smile.

'What?' Clara tried to laugh her way out of the question, but she knew the longer she avoided it, the harder it would be for things to get better.

'You still look a little nervous around him. You want to be like you used to with him, however that may have been, but you don't know whether you can cross that line now.' Sarah lifted the tea bags from the mugs after letting them stew and threw them in the bin.

'How do you…'

'I remember being like that around him.' Sarah walked to the fridge, brought out a carton of milk and started pouring it into the steaming mugs.

'You've seen him change too?' Clara asked. Sarah Jane went to speak, but had heard footsteps in the hallway. The Doctor was hiding behind the doorway. This one was inquisitive. He was a bit clumsy but once he settled into his new body, he'd be a sleuth to rival the best of them. Oh the potential that man had in his life.

'I've seen him change and known many of his faces. He's a difficult one to put down and I can see when someone finds it…challenging to deal with at first. It's perfectly natural, Clara. He's a different man every time, but yet, somehow, he's always the same. It's a difficult one to get your head around.' Sarah returned the milk to the fridge and went back to stirring the tea. The spoon clinking against the mugs filling the silence.

'It's just the age difference that's causing the problem.' Clara stated. It wasn't entirely the truth. There were other things, but the age difference was the most obvious. The young Doctor had pranced around and acted all giddy over the simplest of things. This man was stern, harder, tighter with his actions. It was like the excitement for every little thing had vanished.

'He's nearly a thousand years old, Clara.'

'You know what I mean…'

'When I first met him, he was a blundering whizz of an old man. A scientific genius. Smoking jackets, capes, silver bouffant hair…'

'Bouffant?' Clara laughed, the idea of her doctor having a bouffant hairstyle was hilarious, although she could imagine the current one growing one if he so wished. It seemed like something he would do on a whim.

'The 70s has a lot to answer for.' Sarah Jane chuckled. 'And he was wonderful. Like a father figure or mad uncle. He looked after me and when he died…it was the worst thing in the universe. This man, a man I had travelled the stars with, a man who had shown me the glory of the universe and made dreams real, was leaving me.' Sarah continued to stir the tea. Always starring ahead, remembering those fond days with her Doctors. She breathed heavily as she saw their faces fly by. The smiles stretching across the universe. 'He changed and became this younger man. All teeth and curls. A long scarf and jelly babies.' Sarah laughed at the memory. 'At first I was scared. Was he the Doctor? If he was, how alike would he be? Did I want him to be the same? What I had with my first Doctor ended up being so different to my life with the other man, but, despite all the differences, they were the same person. I just kind of knew it. It'll take a while to see the similarities but if you give it time, and god knows with the Doctor you have plenty of that, things will settle into their proper place. Just do what feels natural and everything will be fine.'

'And if that means leaving him?'

'Then it means leaving him. It's difficult. To say goodbye and walk away from that life. I've done it more than I care to remember, but if it's for the best, then why wait? Uncertainty prolongs the wait between the now and the inevitable.'

'And it was worth it?' Clara asked, stepping closer to Sarah Jane as she turned around to pass Clara a mug of tea.

'I found that I didn't want my second Doctor to be like my first. Same man but with a different way of being. And now that I've met more of him, I wait for the knock on my door or the accidental reunions and I'm reminded of the wonder of the universe and how strange it can be and that, of all people, it's the Doctor who is the constant.' At this, she heard the Doctor cough loudly which dragged him into the kitchen. He looked like he'd walked in on a conversation between his parent and school teacher.

'You took your time.' Sarah said, passing another of the mugs to the Doctor, which he cradled in his hands.

'You do realise that your medicine cupboard wasn't in any sort of order. How do you live like that?'

'Oh and OCD. You really are going to be fun.' The Doctor smirked like a kid who had been caught doing something naughty. 'Through to the living room?' Sarah Jane gestured, and all three of them walked through to the living room. Sarah at the back of the line, watching as this time Clara went to sit on the sofa next to the Doctor. The Doctor looked at Clara for a second before turning to Sarah Jane. The conversation spanned the last couple of centuries for the Doctor and delved into their shared memories. They laughed and joked for many an hour before they realised that the sky had turned dark.

'Don't leave it a few centuries before the next visit, ok?' Sarah shouted as the Doctor and Clara walked back to the TARDIS.

'I promise.' The Doctor shouted in return as he stepped inside the little blue box, not looking back. Clara stood on the step of the TARDIS and waved at Sarah Jane. The conversations they had embarked upon had been winding and exciting. Clara loved it when the Doctor told stories. It was even better when she saw others joining in. This was real. Others could be drawn into his life and experience the splendour that the universe held in its arms. Maybe one day Clara would be like Sarah Jane. She hoped so. She really did.


End file.
